The W star attended the event on Monday (05Jan08) night to accept the Best Supporting Actor gong for his role in Milk, which was presented to him by his co-star, Sean Penn.

Penn teased his pal from the stage, telling the audience, "I?m sorry it took until your 40s for you to be recognised. I wrote (Josh) off as I do all square-jawed actors. But bit by bit - as he became older and older - I realised he?s going to become such an asset to the film industry.?

Brolin responded by flicking his middle finger at Penn before joining him on stage and announcing, "We?ve all known Sean as an actor who doesn?t smile very much. Sean, you smiled a lot in this film. You?re going to win an Oscar. Just because you smiled so much.?

And Brolin could couldn't resist taking taking a swipe at his American Gangster co-star, Russell Crowe, telling the audience, "Quite the actor, that Sean Penn. He?s not an a**hole... like Russell Crowe."

The actor then launched into tirade against newspaper theatre critic Ben Brantley, who panned his 2000 Broadway performance in Sam Shepard's True West.

He told the stunned crowd, "I?ve had the gamut of reviews over the past few years, the worst being from Ben Brantley (of The New York Times). The critics of NYC have written incredible reviews... except for Ben Brantley?s. F**k you, Ben. God, I hate that motherf**ker! And I don't think he's a good writer."